With the demand for fossil fuels continuing to grow, new fields for oil and gas are continually being opened, some in quite remote locations. This necessitates the construction of lengthy pipelines to transport the oil or gas from the field to the refinery and/or nearest port and/or the end users. Likewise with climate change contributing to a growing scarcity of water from reservoirs near urban centres, alternative sources of water in more remote regions are being investigated. This may also necessitate the construction of lengthy pipelines to transport the water from the remote source to urban centres. Traditionally steel pipelines have been constructed for this purpose. However more recently pipelines constructed from plastics materials are being considered as a viable alternative. Plastics materials have the advantage of being corrosion-resistant and more lightweight than steel.
A disadvantage of using current pipeline construction techniques for both steel and plastics pipelines is the considerable expense of transporting the individual lengths of pipe to the route along which the pipeline is to be laid. In addition to transport costs there is also the cost of welding or otherwise connecting the individual lengths of pipe end to end.
The present invention was developed with a view to providing a mobile plastics extrusion plant which would enable a pipe made of plastics material to be manufactured in situ on the route along which the pipeline is to be laid. It will be apparent that the mobile plastics extruder could also be employed to manufacture other extruded plastics products and is not limited in its application to pipes.
References to prior art in this specification are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not to be taken as an admission that such prior art is part of the common general knowledge in Australia or elsewhere.